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Scottish Parliamentary Elections – Care Hustings – 21 Apr

Scottish Care is pleased to host a virtual hustings forum on Wednesday 21st April from 13:00 – 14:00 ahead of Scottish Parliamentary Elections on May 6th.

At the event, we will be joined by political party health representatives of the major parties who have existing parliamentary seats. Confirmed attendees include:

  • Donald Cameron – Conservative
  • Jackie Baillie – Labour
  • Alison Johnstone – Green
  • Fulton McGregor -SNP
  • Alex Cole-Hamilton – Liberal Democrats

Each party representative will be invited to briefly share their perspectives on social care, reflecting on the past year and priorities for the next Parliament.  We will then hold an open Q and A session. This is your opportunity to quiz prospective parliamentarians on matters that concern you most.

Social Care has never been such a prominent issue in an election. Scottish Care has published our own Care Manifesto which centres on the call in the Independent Review of Adult Social Care for a Social Care Covenant – an agreement of and for social care that places the dignity of individuals at the heart of decision-making and at the forefront of a more inclusive social care future.

The session will be an open, online event and requires registration. It will be moderated by Scottish Care CEO, Dr Donald Macaskill. Please sign up at the following link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIldu-vqTkiGd02SpW-u30jCV9HoQmSpEc6

For further information on this event please contact: [email protected]

We look forward to seeing you there!

Twitter hashtag: #carehusting

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Experiences from a student and front-line care worker

"...always look after yourself first because I have found if I’m not feeling fit and well then I can't carry out my job as effectively when caring for those who need us most."

We are delighted to present a Q & A style blog from Becca, a Health and Social Care student who has been working front-line as a care worker. 

In this blog, she shares her experiences of being a student whilst working in the social care sector during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Huge thanks to Becca for sharing this with us!

Hi everyone! My name is Becca, I am currently a 4th-year student at the University of the West of Scotland studying Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Integrated Health and Social Care. Alongside my studies, I am a mentee with Scottish Care, with the lovely Karen Hedge as my mentor through the Employer Mentoring Programme within the university. Outside of my studies, I am currently a care assistant within a local care home in Ayrshire, providing specialist care for individuals who are living with dementia and other mental health conditions. I have been working in this role for over seven years, two years as a community care assistant and five years within the care home setting. 

What are the benefits and challenges of being a student and working on the front line as a care assistant?

For myself, the benefit of being a student and working on the front line as a care assistant in a care home setting allows me to plan and organise my diary for student life and working life. Although my planning and organisation skills are quite good, I had to work on them even further to ensure I was participating in my online classes. Because we had to work from home as well as help at work with extra shifts to cover for people shielding or experiencing Covid-19 symptoms. The challenges I have been faced with when being a student during this pandemic is being stuck in four walls for my classes, alone facing a laptop with the rest of my class. It has been difficult as I love socialising with others, meeting up with my friends and grabbing a coffee from the café within the university. I have not been able to do any of that since March 2020 and because of this, it has had an impact on my mental health. The challenge I face at work is wearing the face mask when caring for people who are living with dementia and the majority of these individuals are living with advanced dementia. They often don’t understand why we are wearing masks and often would like us to take them off because they miss our ‘smiles’ when we see them, or they can’t tell us apart from each other. This has become a challenge because it upsets myself and work colleagues to see our residents become distressed and upset with having us in masks when they are so used to seeing us with smiles and could tell us apart in their own way.

 How has Covid-19 impacted my learning and job role?

Covid-19 has impacted my learning because I enjoy bouncing ideas off my class peers and lectures over a coffee and participating in class discussions. I feel it isn’t the same when behind a keyboard and quite often I find myself confused or stuck on something to do with my course work which leads to me becoming stressed because I don’t have that environment to work with others. Sometimes I have managed to book a ‘study space’ within the university and meet up with one class peer, which has helped not only myself but my class peer as well because it is not just myself that has struggled through this. Covid-19 has impacted my job because where we were able to hug our residents when they were upset, now we must wear PPE including face masks on which often scared our residents, and they did not want to come near us because they did not know who we were behind the mask. Closing our doors to visitors and family members was heartbreaking because our residents would look out for their families and they could not understand where they were. With no visits being permitted in the home, often colleagues and I would witness a decline in our residents, which was heartbreaking to see, and I personally think the lack of social interaction from families contributed to that. 

What have I learned from this experience?

From this experience, I have learned to keep your loved ones close even after the pandemic is over. This experience has taught me to ensure I check in with friends and family to make sure they are doing ok and if they need anything, especially my grandpa. It has taught me to plan and organise my time effectively between my student life and my work life so I don’t become overwhelmed with everything that is happening around us. It is vital that you look after your own mental wellbeing especially in these dark times, I often speak to myself and practice deep breathing exercises when I feel I am becoming a bit overwhelmed with everything. I have also found self-care days have been very beneficial in my own mental wellbeing and this has been developed since having this experience of the pandemic as I would not have normally done this prior to Covid-19.

What advice would I give to future people if this happens again? 

The advice I would give to anyone who is struggling through this pandemic or find ourselves back in a similar situation is to look after yourself and speak to someone if you find you are coping. Mental health is so important, and everyone should live a positive, healthy life no matter the age you are. If you are a student and working on the front line like myself, then my advice is to ensure you plan things as best as you can, it might not go the way you want it but if you have routine and plan things to become less overwhelmed and always … I mean always look after yourself first because I have found if I’m not feeling fit and well then I can’t carry out my job as effectively when caring for those who need us most.

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Supporting families and friends of those in care homes webinar with Alzheimer Scotland – 15 April

We will be joined by colleagues from Alzheimer Scotland in this webinar session to guide care home members in supporting families and friends of residents as the new Open with Care visiting guidance comes into place. You can find out more about Alzheimer Scotland’s work in this below.

This webinar will take place on Thursday 15 April 2021 at 3PM, our CEO Dr Donald Macaskill will be joined by Jim Pearson (Director of Policy & Research) and Lorna Hart-Thomson (Action on Rights Team Lead) from Alzheimer Scotland.

Details to join this webinar session will be available on the Members Area of this website. 

Alzheimer Scotland has established a new Action on Rights team, funded by the Scottish Government. Throughout the pandemic, their frontline staff and 24 hour Freephone Dementia Helpline have been immersed in supporting people deal with the impact of the lockdown measures. Much of this support has been assisting people with relatives living in care homes. This has involved helping people understand the evolving care home visiting guidance, and in some cases helping to facilitate visits or meaningful contact with loved ones. During this time, they have also continued to support thousands of people with dementia and their families and carers living at home, through a combination of therapeutic interventions, online groups, wellbeing calls and home visits. This new team will build on all of their existing support and provides an extra level of dedicated support for those families with loved ones living in care homes.

The Action on Rights team will support implementation of the Scottish Government’s new Open with Care visiting guidance for care homes and offer emotional and practical support to families and friends of people living in care homes and who are experiencing high levels of anxiety and trauma as a result of the lack of meaningful contact. The Action on Rights team will be able to provide advice on the new care home visiting guidance and help families have informed discussions with the care home staff who are responsible for arranging care home visits. If needed, the team will liaise with care home staff to help facilitate meaningful visits (within any relevant restrictions) and essential visits. The team will work with families to help arrange meaningful contact in a way that avoids, or when necessary, resolves conflict.

More details on the Action on Rights team can be found here. This service is available to anyone who has a relative or friend who is resident in a care home in Scotland. You can access the Action on Rights team by calling the 24 hour Freephone Dementia Helpline on 0808 808 3000 or emailing [email protected].

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Scottish Care Nursing Survey 2021

Dear colleague

I am excited to present the 2021 Scottish Care Nursing Survey. This year more than ever, it is paramount that we get the views of our nursing workforce and managers. I appreciate times remain challenging, but I hope you are as determined as we are to make your voices heard. We have a real opportunity to give social care nursing the spotlight it deserves if we work together.

Thank you all in advance for your time in completing this survey.

Survey deadline: 30 April

Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/nursingsurvey2021

Kind regards,

Jacqui Neil
Transforming Workforce Lead for Nursing

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Scottish Care Manifesto 2021

Scottish Care is publishing our Manifesto April 07, 2021 with our key priorities for the next Government, ahead of the Scottish Parliamentary Elections on May 06, 2021.

Our Manifesto echoes the call in the Feeley report for a Social Care Covenant – an agreement of and for social care that places the dignity of individuals at the heart of decision-making and at the forefront of a more inclusive social care future that recognises its distinctive role in supporting the wellbeing of individuals to live an independent and healthy life of their choice.

Given the particular hardships faced by the care home and home care sectors in the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have considered the areas in which those accessing care, the workforce and providers would benefit most. We must consider the support that people need as we recover from the effects of the pandemic and how we can deliver that given the new challenges as Scotland exits lockdown.

We have outlined eight areas of focus where we present a future change landscape for social care in Scotland. The Manifesto shares the key areas of focus with accompanying actions towards realising a positive future for the independent social care sector in Scotland.

The Manifesto was developed with input from our members, partners and people who use social care supports. We thank them for their involvement in this work.

Karen Hedge, National Director says:

“We are at a standpoint for social care. The pandemic has highlighted the potential of the sector; the agility of our providers and the dedication and skill of our workforce. This, coupled with the Review of Adult Social Care, has changed parameters and expectations of the sector making the forthcoming election a critical opportunity to address the 8 areas of focus outlined by Scottish Care in their Social Care Covenant, so that we can get this right for the people of Scotland.”

Read our Manifesto here
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Scottish Care to be part of leading brand new centre to implement evidence in adult social care

Scottish Care will be partnering with the University of Birmingham, as part of a broader consortium of key stakeholders from across the four nations of the UK, to develop a brand new Centre for adult social care, which will aim to put evidence into practice to promote and maintain people’s independence and wellbeing.

The new Centre called IMPACT (Improving Adult Care Together) has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, and the Health Foundation, and will be the first Centre of its kind in the UK.

The Centre will:

  • Lead the way in helping people working in adult social care, carers, and the people they support make better use of high-quality, practice-based evidence to support innovation in adult social care
  • Build capacity and skills in the adult social care workforce
  • Help develop sustainable and productive relationships between all of those working across adult social care
  • Improve our understanding of what helps or hinders when putting evidence into practice

The Centre will receive funding of £15 million over the next six years, with equal contributions from ESRC and the Health Foundation.

Scottish Care will be part of the IMPACT consortium working with a wide range of academic, policy and practice partners and with people with lived experience of using social care services to help develop and lead a programme of innovation and improvement.

Scottish Care is delighted to work together with different stakeholders on this IMPACT initiative to help shape the future of social care. Traditional research often fails to move beyond the ‘proof of concept’ stage, but we believe that IMPACT will offer a real opportunity to take research forward into implementation. This is the chance for us to reconsider our approach to evidence implementation by recognising the value and capability of the social care sector. This enables us to create conditions for real collaboration, critically including those who work in and access care and support, to allow us to move not only to research implementation but embedding it into real-life practice.

Jon Glasby, Professor of Health and Social Care at the University of Birmingham who has been appointed as IMPACT’s director and will be working with a range of partners from across the UK to lead the co-development, establishment and delivery of the centre said:

“Adult social care touches people’s lives in such important and intimate ways, and it’s crucial that it’s based on the best possible evidence of what works.

“Good care isn’t just about services, it’s about having a life – and the ESRC and the Health Foundation are providing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a real difference.”

ESRC Executive Chair, Professor Alison Park, said:

“The complex nature of the social care system means that frontline practice does not always benefit sufficiently from the evidence we already have about what works.

“The increased implementation of evidence-based innovations and improvements in adult social care are crucial to ensuring better outcomes for the many people who use these services, and their carers and families. Finding a way to make this happen is challenging – but the prize, in terms of improvements to adult social care, makes it essential.”

Will Warburton, Director of Improvement, the Health Foundation, said:

“The fragmented nature of the adult social care sector poses real challenges for ensuring the consistent provision of evidence-based, high quality care and support.

“The IMPACT Centre will work alongside people with experience of care, carers, commissioners and providers to develop practical support that will increase the use of high-quality research evidence in the adult social care sector across the UK.”

Recognising the combined value of good practice and robust evidence from different sources, the Centre will bring together people with lived experience of social care, those providing unpaid care, people working in adult social care, experts in the mobilisation and implementation of evidence, social care providers, commissioners and policy experts, and academic teams from across the UK.

Together with stakeholders in adult social care and beyond, the IMPACT team will agree priorities and design, establish, deliver and evaluate the Centre’s work programme, aiming to lead to sustainable change in the use of evidence in adult social care.

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Workforce Event – ‘Creating Pathways to Social Care Recruitment’

Workforce Matters is holding a workforce event on 28th April between 10am and 2pm –  ’Creating Pathways to Social Care Recruitment’.  This event will focus on the recruitment requirements of care providers and will have sessions delivered around recruitment opportunities, employability programmes and pathways to students coming from Higher Education Institutions.

Care providers will have an opportunity to speak with organisations working to support Social Care recruitment to discuss their employment needs when recruiting new staff members to assist with aligning employers needs to educational programmes and ensuring that new staff are informed and have a greater understanding of the social care sector prior to employment.

Please email [email protected] to register interested in attending this event.

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Essentials of Safe Care

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) Essentials of Safe Care publication has been launched today (11 March).

The Essentials of Safe Care (EoSC) aims to provide evidence-based guidance for the safe delivery of care in all settings. This work brings together existing guidance and standards into one package, which can be applied in any health or social care setting. This has been a whole system team effort from day one bringing together stakeholders from across health, social care, third and independent sector and housing.

The EoSC package can be found here ihub.scot/spsp

The package contains an interactive driver diagram that outlines the key elements within each essential that can support achieving the overall aim of delivering safe care for every person within every setting every time. Each essentials provides a range of information and resources based on best evidence available, existing standards and guidelines, and examples of current practice for services to consider as part of their own improvements.

Ongoing support will be provided through the Essentials of Safe Care Learning System which aims to accelerate sharing of learning and improvement work through a range of engagement and learning opportunities. These will include the development of an Essentials of Safe Care network, webinar series, website where case studies and resources will be published, measurement framework and improvement support.  A series of awareness raising webinars will be delivered during March followed by topic-specific session throughout 2021 open to all to participate within. The package will continue to evolve in line with what is happening within the system and feedback from services who are using it. You can also follow developments through social media via #spsp247 and #TheEoSC.

Scottish Care will be hosting a webinar on the EOSC with colleagues from Healthcare Improvement Scotland on Thursday 29 April at 2PM. This session will be hosted by our Transforming Workforce Lead, Jacqui Neil. She will be joined by:

  • Jo Matthews – Head of Improvement Support and Safety, Improvement Hub (ihub), Healthcare Improvement Scotland

This session aims to

  • provide an overview of this package of guidance and support,
  • explore how it can benefit your service, both service users and staff,
  • hear from teams about how they plan to use it, and
  • describe the system to support implementation and learning

Details to join this webinar session will be available on the Members Area of this website shortly. If you have any issues accessing this area, please contact [email protected].

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EU Settlement Scheme Webinar – 18 March

We are hosting a webinar on the EU Settlement Scheme on Thursday 18 March at 2PM with our Workforce Practice & Policy Lead, Caroline Deane and Andy Knox  (Principal Solicitor at Lanarkshire Community Law Centre).

Details to join this session will be available on the Members Area of this website.

Please see below for more information on the EU Settlement Scheme and the help that Citizens Advice Scotland can provide.

In January 2020 the UK left the EU and on 31st December 2020 what is known as the transition period ended.  During the transition period EU citizens* had the right to live work and study in the UK but now that the transition period has ended and EU citizens and their family members who wish to stay in the UK must apply under the EU Settlement Scheme for either Settled Status (indefinite leave to remain) or Pre-Settled Status (limited leave to remain for 5 years) before 30th June 2021.

It is important that all EU citizens and their family members apply to the EU Settlement Scheme before the deadline of 30th June 2021 to allow them to live, work and study in the UK beyond that date.

Citizens Advice Scotland has a free, confidential and impartial service for anyone that requires support or advice with their application and we are eager to work with care providers across Scotland to provide assistance to your employees and clients with their applications.  We have specialist advisers based in bureaux across Scotland as well as a national telephone helpline which is open between 09:00 and 17:00 Monday to Friday.

*EU citizens includes citizens of the EU member states, as well as citizens of EEA states (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), and citizens of Switzerland.

20210120 Letter from HF - EU Assets Mailing
Download letter
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International Women’s Day blog from our National Director

This has been an unprecedented and horrendous year. This very latest chapter in the story of care has for many turned out to be the hardest as new strains of the virus stole our chances of remobilisation.

Yet, when I think of those who work in social care, 84% of whom are women, the feminist phrase ‘nevertheless she persisted’ comes to mind. March 8th is international women’s day. This year’s theme is #ChooseToChallenge making it a good time to consciously recognise and raise the role that gender politics have played in the long-term under recognition of social care and the pernicious effect of paternalistic structures and systems on all those who provide, work in, and access care and support. Pandemic response has been a microcosm of that experience, leading to scrutiny, division and blame at a time when what is needed is respect, collaboration, and support.

The voice and expertise of skilled social care professionals, when listened to, offers routes to manage the pandemic in situ. We have seen this in the embedding of the most recent guidance, finally co-produced with sector experts.

In the Engender report ‘Sex and Power in Scotland 2020’ we read that only 2 out of every 50 people who head up the top Scottish Companies are women. This is quite a comparison to the 2 out of every 3 who hold CEO and Director level posts in social care. There are two ways that we must look at this. First, we must celebrate a sector which has championed and supported so many women into leadership roles. This is not purely down to statistics, but because of a sector which very often applies its expertise in person-centred and person-led care and support to workforce development. There is much that other sectors could learn from this approach.

Secondly, we must note the vast difference in the number of men in senior rather than frontline roles. Diversity is a greatness, and this highlights the need to welcome more men to frontline social care. But also, not to rest on our laurels, 2 out of 3 is impressive, but not representative of the 84% in frontline roles. There is still more to be done about that proverbial glass ceiling.

I recently heard Dame Stefanie Shirley speak and she said that ‘you can tell ambitious women by the shape of their head – it is flat by being patted patronisingly’. Now my first reaction was to laugh out loud, but this was quickly followed by a sharp intake of breath as its accuracy hit home.

So many assumptions are made by those outside of the sector about what social care is and does. We have no better spotlight than now to showcase our expertise, skills, and professionalism. I ask my fellow flat headers and those that they work with, to #choosetochallenge by sharing a story about what you do in social care. We have an opportunity to change perception, it is our responsibility to take it.

Thanks to the SSSC for providing social care workforce data.

 

Karen Hedge

National Director

@hegeit